Editorial: The FDA’s sensible approach to a dangerous addiction

The Issue:

The Food and Drug Administrationís strategy for making cigarettes less habit-forming has some critics.

Our Opinion:

Tackling nicotine in a comprehensive way is probably the best long-term way to stop this killer.

The head of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration wants to reduce the addictiveness of cigarettes and eventually wean Americans off them entirely.

"The overwhelming amount of death and disease attributable to tobacco is caused by addiction to cigarettes - the only legal consumer product that, when used as intended, will kill half of all long-term users," FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said late last month.The same day it announced its intention to draft rules to reduce the level of nicotine in cigarettes, the agency said it was putting off a 2018 deadline by which e-cigarette makers must seek FDA authorization for the sale of their products.The FDA said the latter move, which some health advocates criticized, is aimed at keeping a product on the market that helps some people quit smoking.Among the critics of putting off the FDA's plan - which would delay requiring its approval of vaping products, cigars, pipe tobacco and hookah tobacco by three or four years - is the American Lung Association."The bottom line is if the FDA has the science to make changes to tobacco products that will improve the public health, they need to act immediately," Erika Sward, the association's assistant vice president for national advocacy, told the Reading Eagle.There is something to that argument. Cigarette smoking is the nation's leading cause of preventable disease and death, killing more than 480,000 Americans annually, with treatment of related illnesses costing more than $300 billion per year, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.But Gottlieb's comprehensive approach has support in the health community, and appears to be the right approach."The big picture here is that cigarettes as we know them could be phased out and e-cigarettes could be a bridge for people to not use cigarettes," Josh Sharfstein, a deputy FDA commissioner in the Obama administration and now a professor at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, told The Washington Post.Sharfstein called Gottlieb's announcement an exciting moment because it would link the FDA's policies on e-cigarettes and cigarettes.And Gottlieb is clearly concerned about the potentially harmful effects of e-cigarettes on young people.On Tuesday, the FDA said it plans to add vaping to its anti-nicotine pitch to teens.Citing a recent statistic showing that more than 2 million middle school and high school students in the United States were using e-cigarettes, Gottlieb said it shows "the troubling reality that they are the most commonly-used tobacco product among youth."Anti-vaping messaging will be added to the FDA's anti-tobacco The Real Cost campaign beginning in the fall, and a campaign aimed at getting young people to avoid vaping and e-cigarettes will begin next year. The education effort will include new ads to let young people know of the potential for nicotine to rewire their brains, possibly creating cravings leading to addiction.While he is among those worried about the delay in regulations on e-cigarettes and cigars, Dr. Uday Dasika of the Reading Health Physician Network agrees with the FDA on the danger of getting hooked on cigarettes."It's a very, very addictive habit once you get started," said Dasika, a cardiothoracic surgeon. "I'm passionate about seeing young people not start."Agreed. Let this addictive and dangerous habit end as soon as possible.